A one-and-half-year-old girl from Iraq suffering from a rare inherited liver disorder was given a new lease of life after her mother donated a part of her liver.

The girl was suffering from congenital hepatic fibrosis -- a rare disease that is present at birth and affects the liver. This liver disorder affected the formation of her liver and bile ducts. As a result, the child had a stagnant weight of 6 kg from six weeks of birth up till 1 year. "The child had jaundice soon after her birth which eventually worsened with time. After 6 weeks of her birth, she was diagnosed with Alagille Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the liver, heart, and other parts of the body," Abhideep Chaudhary, Senior Consultant, Liver Transplant Department at Jaypee Hospital in Noida, said in a statement on 6 March.

Later a series of tests diagnosed her with congenital hepatic fibrosis and one of the blood supplying arteries were found to be partially developed. She was kept on ventilation. "We performed hyper-reduced left lateral liver graft surgery on the girl using a part of liver donated by her mother" Chaudhary said. But, due to the baby's age and weight, she did not support the left lobe of her mother's liver, the doctors had to reduce the size of liver of the mother as per the child's body requirement.

"Not only did we dissect the liver but we also had to reduce the thickness of it during donor's surgery and then transplant it," Chaudhary noted. "The patient is currently on immunosuppresants and other supportive medications. Both, the patient and donor are recovering fast and are now fit to go back to their country," Chaudhary said. Jaypee Hospital has successfully completed 400 kidney and liver transplants in the last three years, the statement said.